I have a friend who gets this sweet, dark, buttery molasses flavored honey in his area. So I am planning on building a regular nuc that will make their own queen from a frame of eggs and putting it out there.
If I stock it with a lot of capped brood, shouldn't they fill me 3 nice frames of that honey by the time they produce a laying queen? (I could also use that queen.)
Bob,
It depends on how many field bees are in it and how strong the flow is.
Jim Altmiller
I agree Jim
Resources:
Just curious; How long does this particular nectar come in for this type honey? What is the nectar source? Bob, Do you have the resources to place a producing hive ready to go instead?
Phillip
Jim...
If there are a lot of emerging brood, and no queen laying, will they graduate the nurse bees early into the field? I suppose I will need to shake in a lot of bees from other frames, but those are mostly nurse bees also.
Ben...
Yes. I have the resources. I am not sure the nectar source. We are trying to discover it. Last year it seemed a June flow, when usually there is none. I never saw it in my area.
Bob,
If you drop in a bunch of nurse bees and you have a lot of capped brood, then the older nurse bees can then switch jobs and become the field bees.
Swarms are mostly nurse bees with a bunch of scouts. As soon as the new brood start hatching the older nurse bees switch jobs and become the field bees.
Jim Altmiller
QuoteBen...
Yes. I have the resources. I am not sure the nectar source. We are trying to discover it. Last year it seemed a June flow, when usually there is none. I never saw it in my area.
Whatever you decide I hope it works out for you Bob. Let us know if you find the nectar source.
Phillip
On a flow with no brood to feed, a nuc box fills up remarkably fast. If it is mostly the honey which you want, you might want to consider putting out a full sized box. Perhaps even a double deep.
You could put your queenless nuc sized colony, with large brood frames, into the bottom of a double deep. Set that out and forget about it for 4 to 6 weeks. Assuming a good flow period through that, When you go back to it there will be either: a nice queenrite hive full of honey or a nice laying worker hive full of honey. Either way, you will have a harvest.